Atkinson, 69, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree arson during a hearing Wednesday morning before Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Pamela L. Lightvoet.

A second count of attempted second-degree arson is to be dismissed when Atkinson is sentenced Sept. 22 by Lightvoet. Prosecutors have agreed to make no recommendation on what sentence Atkinson should receive.

Atkinson is the first vice president of the Metropolitan Kalamazoo Branch of the NAACP and a 2012 recipient of a YWCA Woman of Achievement Award.

She had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday in Lighvoet's courtroom. She also was to have appeared in court Thursday for a hearing on a motion filed by her attorney, Mike Hills, that sought to suppress statements Atkinson made to Kalamazoo Public Safety detectives Gary Gaudard and Bill Moorian on Feb. 13.

Police arrested Atkinson and her handyman, Elvis Patterson, on Feb. 13 in connection with a plot to burn down a house Atkinson owned at 1327 N. Park St.

Patterson, 57, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit second-degree arson and is scheduled to be sentenced Monday by Lightvoet. As in Atkinson's case, one count of attempted second-degree arson is to be dismissed at the time of Patterson's sentencing.

According to court documents, Patterson's minimum sentence is expected to be two to three years behind bars and a Cobbs agreement between Patterson and the court calls for Lighvoet to give Patterson a minimum sentence that does not exceed three years so that he is eligible for the probation bootcamp program.

When police obtained arrest warrants for Atkinson and Patterson in February, Moorian testified in Kalamazoo County District Court that he and another detective conducted surveillance of a Feb. 12 meeting between Atkinson, Patterson and a tenant of the house on North Park Street.

During the meeting, plans to burn the house down were discussed and Atkinson paid money to the tenant to vacate the house so the arson could occur, Moorian told District Judge Richard A. Santoni.

Rex Hall Jr. is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. You can reach him at rhall2@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter.